I moved towards the nearest stairs leading to the upper floors, there were no more undead nearby on the bottom floor thankfully, so my worst fears of having to carve up a way through numerous students were delayed for a while.
Most of the turned students are still stuck inside the lecture halls and classrooms. Once the undead curse hits, they'll be unable to think nor process the information around them, they'll be no more than mindless beasts unable to think logically, that is of course for the lower tier undead.
The stronger they become the smarter they get, and some can grow to be far smarter than humans, capable of speech and magic. Liches, Dullahan, Bone Lords, Vampires, and worse.
So far the undead curse is still too immature and is yet to set its devilish roots.
But that won't last for long, shit will get uglier soon and I need to get to my party before things get worse.
"Stick close," I spoke in a hushed tone as I got to the side of the stairs and peaked
There were several chairs, tables, and even a god damned vending machine blocking the access, going up from this side is close to impossible, though I can remove this, it will make a metric fuck ton of noise, enough to pull every undead remaining on the first floor to me.
"Dead end," I said.
"We can go to the other stairs," Mary said.
As much as I appreciate her help…
"That's gonna be useless, the students, or whoever was smart enough to block this side must have closed off the other sides. We need another way to get to the upper floor," I said.
She didn't seem to understand what I was going for so she asked, "But that's the only way up."
"Well, normally it is," I replied, "But we can use that," I said as I pointed up.
Her eyes traced my pointing finger to an air duct.
"We'll use the ventilation system, it should be safe, so hop on," I said as I got closer to the wall and linked my fingers to boost her up.
She understood and stepped on my hands as I slowly raised her up.
She then began pulling the air duct's door. Making incredibly unnecessary noises.
"I don't wanna be that guy, but I'd appreciate if you can make this a bit faster. We have company," I said as I looked to my side.
An undead noticed our shenanigans and was making its way towards us. Suddenly, a nearby lecture hall door blasted open, as undead began pouring out, and I was in a situation where even a sitting duck would be an understatement.
"Hurrryyy" I spoke.
Suddenly the air duct's door was flung making even more noise.
"Hoist me up," she said and I did, adding a bit more strength than needed, enough that she bumped her head with the top of the metallic duct.
A loud ouch that traversed through the air duct system was more than enough to alert every single god-forsaken undead that was close to the duct. Which by the way was the entire god damn school.
Mary scurried into the duct and I jumped and pushed myself into it after her.
The undead won't be able to crawl into the duct, at least I hope so. I turned to move up ahead and managed to bury myself into something soft.
"As much as I appreciate this reward, we need to move…" I said.
A red beat Mary turned towards me and said, "You still find time to joke around in a situation like this," she said.
"As long as you're finding time to feel embarrassed and talk-back, yes, MOVE I don't like it when I'm in a closed space and a mob of undead is trying to gnaw at my feet," I said smiling, though my words and tone were anything but that.
Mary began moving, making even more noise than necessary.
"Don't lift your knees and hand, slide them forward as you move, you're making too much noise," I said.
"Right, right," she replied and began sliding forward.
I followed after her and made sure to look behind me every now and then.
Suddenly I was once again met with the same soft posterior of earlier. It's been many years since I've felt the touch of a woman, but even with a teenager's body's raging hormones, I was not in a situation where I could 'enjoy' this.
"What's the matter…" I said.
"Rat…"
"For fuck sake woman, beat it, ignore it, or just grab it and throw it away, one of the fuckers is about to climb!" I said loudly enough that it sparked some courage into her, or at least, the fact that an undead was behind us made her completely ignore the rat's presence, and move forward.
They say if strength can't solve a problem, use more strength, here, it's actually fear.
Just as she moved up I managed to see the rat she was so afraid of, it had its neck snapped, it seems that little Mary had grown. I feel proud.
Poor rat, you've become the stepping stone for this girl. Now no rat will ever be as fearsome to her. Thank you for your sacrifice.
I shook my head and moved forward through the duct, suddenly Marry's whole front dipped forward as she screamed, I hastily grabbed onto her ankles and desperately pulled her, as she screamed in utter terror.
Once I pulled her back, I asked.
"What happened?"
She took deep breaths and said, "One of the tiles broke, I fell, there were so many zombies."
"Were you bitten?" I asked.
"I don't think so," she said as she checked over her body."
"Can you make it over the broken tile?" I asked.
"I can…but there are so many of them below."
"Just don't look down and move," I said.
She gathered her courage, slowly so, but still managed to move, slowly as she could she made sure to cross with her hands over the broken tile and scooched over.
I followed after and managed to have a look at what was underneath, this was a section closed by the hall door, it seems all students on the western side of the building had turned. Shit.
"Keep going," I said as I moved over the broken piece.
Slowly we made our way toward one of the crosses in the ventilation system. One of them was leading up.
Mary turned and managed to find a footing where she climbed up and moved forward.
I followed after and we soon arrived at the second floor.
Marry pushed against the duct and blasted it away where a couple of students noticed her.
"You, what the fuck are you doing there?" asked someone.
"Either help or fuck off!" Mary said.
Seems like our little adventure made little Mary into a brave Mary, I'm so proud.
The student didn't understand what was going on and still aided her in leaving the duct.
I then followed after and managed to get myself out without anyone's help.
"Pretty damn impressive, I thought that most of you would be dead by now," I said.
"And who the hell are you?" the student asked.
"Just a passerby, how is the situation here?" I asked.
"I don't know what you mean by that, but you should probably get to the main Conference room that's where everyone is." The student said.
It seems like they already have a 'system' of sorts working in this school.
Looking around I saw many students walking around as if guards, while the majority were absent.
"Anyway, you should probably close up the ducts, the same way as I got in, the undead could do so too, and you don't want that happening now do you," I said grinning, and pulled Mary behind me.
"Let's go, I need to find Will and Nadia."
"I'm right behind you," she said and the two of us made it through the students.
It seems that they haven't been corrupted with power yet.
Which is a blessing but that won't last. In a situation like this, where the law is absent and chaos reigns, human nature tends to overpower morality. We can't stay here for a long while. Many here will start abusing their little power in this little 'world' of theirs, and shit will start getting uglier by the second.
We soon made it to the stairs leading to the third floor where two students were standing guard.
"Where do you think you're going," said one of the students as he pointed his broom at me.
"You can go, you should stay and guard your corner of the school," The other said.
"If you'll excuse me, piss the fuck off," I said as I wrenched away his broom.
Before he could add another word his friend pulled him and gestured with his head to my left arm.
A bloodied curved sword was more than threat enough for them to not mess with me.
"Thank you for understanding," I said smiling. But the creepy smile on my face was probably more terrifying than the bloodied weapon.
I walked up and true as I saw, only girls were there. But there were still a few guys, mainly teachers with them.
Most girls were desperately trying to contact people with their phones, an advent that they'll soon realize to be useless.
I asked the first girl I saw, "Did you see Nadia?"
She shook her head "I don't know who that is," she said.
I guessed as much, it would have been a surprise to get an answer, I'm even lucky to have met Mary.
Still, I moved on and continued asking. Until one of the girls replied.
"She's in the conference room," one of the girls replied, "Why are you asking?" she added.
"None of your business, but thank you," I said.
"Don't go there, they'll beat you up," she said.
This made me slightly anxious, "What do you mean by that?" I asked.
Suddenly another girl spoke, "Gloria!" she called.
"I-I don't know, I didn't say anything," Gloria said her face was pale and she seemed to be grasping at her clothes in desperation.
Something smells in here.
I then hastily picked up the pace. "Lucas, wait," Marry said as she followed after me.
Soon we arrived to the main conference room where a few students were guarding the door, males.
"Where are you going?" asked one of them.
"I need to speak to someone inside, move," I said.
"The fuck you think you are?!" he said.
But before I could add another word I heard a clear scream.
Which was more than enough for me to kick the door blasting it off of its hinges.
I found something that was too despicable to describe.